The Berlin’s Australian Archive team is pleased to announce an upcoming two-day workshop: “Translocated Nature from Australia as Indigenous Cultural Belongings,” to be held at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN) on 8–9 October 2025.

This workshop forms part of the provenance research project Berlin’s Australian Archive and is co-hosted with The Center for Humanities of Nature. Based at the MfN, the Center brings together scholars and practitioners from diverse fields to foster critical reflection on the role of natural history museums and biodiversity sciences.

Over the past two years, the Berlin’s Australian Archive project has been working with the MfN’s Australian collections. Central to this work are the questions:

• How can German natural history institutions acknowledge the continuing significance of translocated nature to First Peoples?
• How can they critically address the colonial entanglements of German natural history while also supporting the recovery of Indigenous knowledges and practices held within their collections?
• And how can this work support First Peoples’ sovereignty claims over natural collections as Indigenous cultural belongings?

The workshop brings together museum professionals and academics from Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom to engage with these questions.

Day 1 (Public Programme): Short talks by invited speakers, a presentation by the Berlin’s Australian Archive team, and an open roundtable discussion. Admission is free, please register via Eventbrite.

Day 2 (Closed Programme): For speakers and invited participants only, with visits to collections and archives alongside informal conversations about appropriate ways of engaging with translocated nature from Australia.

• Jack Ashby  (University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge)
• Ginevra Bellini (MfN)
• Louiza Bengtsson (Botanical Garden Berlin)
• Rebecca Carland and Tim Stranks (Museums Victoria, Melbourne)
• Alison Clark (National Museums Scotland)
• Isabel Davis (Natural History Museum)
• Sarah Fründt (German Lost Art Foundation)
• Yann LeGall  (Technical University Berlin)
• Anita Hermannstädter (MfN)
• Stefanie Klamm (FU Berlin)
• Laura McBride (Wailwan), with Dr. Mariko Smith (Yuin), (Australian Museum, Sydney; pre-recorded)
• PD Dr. Hendrik Müller (Zentralmagazin Naturwissenschaftlicher Sammlungen, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg)

Berlin's Australian Archive Team

• Anja Schwarz (University of Potsdam)
• Eva Bischoff  (Trier University)
• Fiona Möhrle (University of Potsdam & University of Oldenburg)
• Emily McEwan (University of Potsdam)

Center for the Humanities of Nature (MfN)

• Ina Heumann (MfN)
• Katja Kaiser  (MfN)